How do nukes work

That is, at the same moment a few tests were being planned for peaceful uses, many thousands of weapons were being generated over 25, by To my knowledge, the only real example of this was the U. The Plowshare Program, according to documents , was inaugurated in by the Atomic Energy Commission.

It carried out some 31 nuclear explosions intended to mainly explore the feasibility for construction excavations, mining operations, and underground fracturing of impermeable natural gas reservoirs—call it, dinosaur fracking. A conference held at Lawrence Livermore Labs Livermore, CA yielded an array of specific ideas and emphasized the need for data on underground tests.

Nearly all testing had been above ground to that point. Most testing also happened at the Nevada weapons test site, though two dino-fracs were performed in actual gas fields. For various reasons, only some of which are stated cost, environmental concerns , the U. The dino-fracs are interesting. Six were planned, three were carried out on site. One was in NW New Mexico San Luis Basin , the other two in NW Colorado Piceance Basin , both areas where low-permeability gas reservoirs exist and where multistage, water-based fracking is now caried out without nuclear detonations.

In each case, explosive yields were in the range of kt at depths of ft , which compares with about 15 kt for the Hiroshima bomb and 20 kt for Nagasaki.

Gas production increased in each case, but up to eight months had to pass before the wells could be tested. What stands out, though, is that each test generated very different results in terms of how the local rock responded. Predictions about effects and gas flow proved fairly far off.

But these were small ideas compared to other projects that verge on the Trumpian. One was a plan for using nuclear blasts to change a coastline in Alaska by excavating an entire harbor-canal system at Cape Thompson. Even more impressive was the concept to either widen the Panama Canal, a project since achieved without nuclear drama, or to replace it altogether. The canal expansion plan attracted proposals using dozens to hundreds of detonations, with explosive yields of up to 1.

For those who might be interested, the Atomic Energy Commission in the early s produced a series of films promoting the Plowshare Program.

Soviet plans and tests, meantime, aimed in similar directions and, surprising, had some serious accidents. The Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program was mainly employed for increasing the efficiency of mining and enhancing oil and gas production, with plans for the excavation of canal systems and other large-scale projects.

Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. How Nuclear Bombs Work. Hiroshima Peace Memorial stands as a visible reminder of the day the Japanese city was bombed on Aug. After that fateful day, the structure was the only thing still standing in the vicinity of the explosion. Atomic Structure and Radioactivity " ". An atom, in the simplest model, consists of a nucleus and orbiting electrons.

Alpha decay: A nucleus ejects two protons and two neutrons bound together, known as an alpha particle. Beta decay: A neutron becomes a proton, an electron and an antineutrino. The ejected electron is a beta particle.

Spontaneous fission: A nucleus splits into two pieces. In the process, it can eject neutrons, which can become neutron rays. The nucleus can also emit a burst of electromagnetic energy known as a gamma ray. Gamma rays are the only type of nuclear radiation that comes from energy instead of fast-moving particles. Nuclear Fission Nuclear bombs involve the forces, strong and weak, that hold the nucleus of an atom together, especially atoms with unstable nuclei.

Nuclear Fuel " ". Officials from the Manhattan Project, the code name for the U. That's Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer in the white hat. The probability of a U atom capturing a neutron as it passes by is fairly high.

In a bomb that is working properly, more than one neutron ejected from each fission causes another fission to occur. It helps to think of a big circle of marbles as the protons and neutrons of an atom. If you shoot one marble -- a single neutron -- into the middle of the big circle, it will hit one marble, which will hit a few more marbles, and so on until a chain reaction continues.

The process of capturing the neutron and splitting happens very quickly, on the order of picoseconds 0. In order for these properties of U to work, a sample of uranium must be enriched ; that is the amount of U in a sample must be increased beyond naturally occurring levels. Weapons-grade uranium is composed of at least 90 percent U Fission Bomb Design " ". If you think of critical mass in terms of marbles, the tight formation of marbles represents critical mass and the three lone marbles stand in for neutrons.

The foil is broken when the subcritical masses come together and polonium spontaneously emits alpha particles. These alpha particles then collide with beryllium-9 to produce beryllium-8 and free neutrons. The neutrons then initiate fission. Fission Bomb Triggers The simplest way to bring the subcritical masses together is to make a gun that fires one mass into the other.

A barometric-pressure sensor determines the appropriate altitude for detonation and triggers the following sequence of events: The explosives fire and propel the bullet down the barrel. The bullet strikes the sphere and generator, initiating the fission reaction. The fission reaction begins. The bomb explodes. The explosives fired, creating a shock wave.

The shock wave compressed the core. The fission reaction began. The bomb exploded. Fusion Bombs Fission bombs worked, but they weren't very efficient. Fusion bombs have higher kiloton yields and greater efficiencies than fission bombs, but they present some problems that must be solved: Deuterium and tritium, the fuels for fusion, are both gases, which are hard to store. Tritium is in short supply and has a short half-life.

Fuel in the bomb has to be continuously replenished. Deuterium or tritium has to be highly compressed at high temperature to initiate the fusion reaction. The fission bomb implodes, giving off X-rays. These X-rays heat the interior of the bomb and the tamper; the shield prevents premature detonation of the fuel. The heat causes the tamper to expand and burn away, exerting pressure inward against the lithium deuterate.

The lithium deuterate is squeezed by about fold. The compression shock waves initiate fission in the plutonium rod. The fissioning rod gives off radiation, heat and neutrons. The neutrons go into the lithium deuterate, combine with the lithium and make tritium. The combination of high temperature and pressure are sufficient for tritium-deuterium and deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions to occur, producing more heat, radiation and neutrons.

The neutrons from the fusion reactions induce fission in the uranium pieces from the tamper and shield. Fission of the tamper and shield pieces produce even more radiation and heat. Nuclear Bomb Delivery " ". An atomic bomb of the 'Little Boy' type that was detonated over Hiroshima Japan. Consequences and Health Risks of Nuclear Bombs " ". A photograph shows the first atomic bomb test on July 16, , at a.

Each fission event releases a large amount of energy in the form of light, heat, and radiation, so successive generations of fission events in the chain reaction will produce exponentially increasing amounts of energy. The key is to create and sustain a chain reaction long enough to produce the desired explosive energy before the fissile core rips itself apart due to the internal pressure created by the energy release.

For example, The initiator and reflector also act to prevent fizzling and increase the yield. The alpha particles then hit the beryllium and produce a reaction that releases neutrons. Thus, the initiator provides a burst of neutrons to quickly start the chain reaction and maximize fission. The reflector is used to bounce neutrons produced by fission back into the core to fission additional nuclei and increase the yield.

Deuterium occurs in nature; tritium is produced by irradiating lithium in a reactor. The heat and pressure created during the fissioning of the core cause a fusion reaction to occur in the gas, which then releases more neutrons. The extra neutrons act to fission more of the fissile core and increase the yield. Boosting can multiply the yield by a factor of When properly put together, an implosion weapon can produce an explosion on the order of a few kilotons to hundreds of kilotons.

Tamper : not shown in the diagram but used for the same purpose and composed of the same material as in an implosion design.

Subcritical mass and supercritical mass : exclusively uranium for this design; plutonium will not work. Both weapons assemble a supercritical mass of fissile material and use a tamper to hold the core together long enough to produce the desired nuclear explosion.

However, the mechanics of a gun design are much simpler, which means that the device is much easier to make. The uranium is machined into two sub-critical masses, which if joined together would be greater than a critical mass.

Then, one of the sub-critical masses is placed at one end of a tube in front of a propellant, and the other is placed at the other end of the tube. When the propellant is detonated, it shoots the first mass down the tube at a high speed. When this mass collides with the second they create a supercritical mass, which produces a fission chain reaction.

Once again, the tamper acts to hold the fissile core together long enough to prevent the weapon from fizzling. Compared to an implosion weapon, the gun assembly acts slower, is not as powerful, and uses far more fissile material. However, the explosive power is still in the range of tens of kilotons. Secondary stage : a fusion fuel charge composed of lithium deuteride, which contains at its center a cylindrical rod of uranium or plutonium, and is surrounded by a casing of uranium metal.

The fusion reaction commonly employed is that of deuterium and tritium. The tritium is created when the lithium in the lithium deuteride reacts with a neutron.

Fusion is the bringing together of two nuclei to form a new nucleus. Similar to fission, the goal is to create a self-sustaining chain reaction that releases exponentially increasing amounts of energy. Fusion is not limited by the requirement of a critical mass, so these weapons can reach theoretically limitless power. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was an approximately 59 megaton thermonuclear bomb produced by the Soviet Union. Fusion, however, requires higher temperatures and densities than can be achieved by chemical high explosives, so a nuclear fission explosion is used to create the necessary temperature and density.

The result is a two-stage reaction in which a fission bomb explodes first and sets off the secondary, fusion part of the weapon. As can be concluded from this discussion, thermonuclear weapons are not a primary proliferation concern because fission weapon technology must first be mastered before a thermonuclear weapon can be developed. A multi-stage thermonuclear weapon is called a Teller-Ulam configuration.

The primary stage has the same basic design as an implosion fission weapon, described in section 1. After the primary stage is detonated, the x-rays it releases cause the pressure and temperature inside the weapon casing to reach the conditions necessary to achieve a thermonuclear reaction in the fusion fuel.

The yield of the fusion fuel is increased when the fissile rod in its center reaches a supercritical state and begins itself to fission. As the fusion fuel reacts, it releases high-energy neutrons that also fission the uranium nuclei that are in the uranium metal casing wrapped around the fusion fuel.

In a typical configuration, fission and fusion each contribute about half the overall energy yield. These are called enhanced radiation, or neutron bombs. They rely on fusion between deuterium and tritium to produce a lethal radius of neutrons and gamma rays. The goal is to produce a low yield weapon deliverable by an artillery shell, for example that inflicts prompt casualties on troops by radiation but leaves intact structures that otherwise would be destroyed by blast effects.

Because fusion releases many times more neutrons than fission for a given weight of fuel, a neutron bomb can create a larger radius inside which there is a lethal dose of nuclear radiation than a small fission bomb can. A one kiloton neutron bomb, for example, creates about the same lethal radius of nuclear radiation as a 10 kiloton fission weapon.

This means that by using a neutron bomb, it is possible to achieve a given radius of lethality with only one tenth of the blast damage that would otherwise be required.

These are tactical, not strategic weapons because of their small size. When detonated in the air, they have the additional advantage of producing little residual radiation fallout so it is plausible to think of them as battlefield weapons. Nuclear fusion is a reaction that releases atomic energy by the union of light nuclei at high temperatures to form heavier atoms.

Hydrogen bombs, which use nuclear fusion, have higher destructive power and greater efficiencies than atomic bombs. Due to the high temperatures required to initiate a nuclear fusion reaction, the process is often referred to as a thermonuclear explosion.

This is typically done with the isotopes of hydrogen deuterium and tritium which fuse together to form Helium atoms. The first hydrogen bomb was exploded on 1st November, at the small island of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. Its destructive power was several megatons of TNT. The blast produced a light brighter than a thousand suns and a heatwave felt 50 kilometres away. The Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb in the megaton range in August